Master Like No Other
by Laid-Back Brit
Summary: When young Jedi-in-training lack confidence that they can do the tough tasks it takes to become a guardian of peace and justice, most masters will offer words of comfort and encouragement. One in particular prefers to take a different approach. It may not be liked by the one he is lecturing, but it's for his own good. The lesson he teaches certainly leaves a mark...


**Disclaimer: Own Star Wars, I do not!**

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It was as dark and misty as ever in the damp, muddy swamps of Dagobah. The gloomy, ominous atmosphere was filled with the sounds of distant creatures and the pitter-patter of falling rain…

…as well as huffing and puffing, accompanied by grunts and groans.

"This…is…ridiculous!" wheezed a tired voice. "How…is…this…gonna…make…me…a…Jedi?"

Luke Skywalker was on his hands and knees on the wet, sodden ground. He was almost out of breath as he heaved his body, doing push-ups. It was hard enough to do without the heavy weight on his back, which consist of a throne made from boulders. Sitting on the rockery sat the one who was putting him through his paces as he sat comfortably on the large stones he was carrying. Yoda swung his tiny little green feet as the young boy moved him up and down.

"Use the Force, you must!" advised the Jedi Master. "Let it flow through you and built up all your strength."

Luke mumbled bitterly to himself some words he was careful not to let his trainer hear. With a cry of agony, he heaved up the heavy stones on which the tiny alien sat one last time. Then he slipped off his palms as he crumbled to the ground, unable to lift the unbearable weight any longer.

"Blast!" he exclaimed exhaustedly.

"Hey!" Yoda jumped down from the rocks on Luke's near-broken back before shaking his walking stick at the boy. "Your language, you watch!"

"Sorry, Master Yoda!" Luke lifted himself up from the ground, allowing all of the rocks to fall off his back before sitting upright, wrapping his arms around his legs as he rested his head onto his knees. "I just can't believe how hard training to a Jedi is."

"Said it would be easy, I did not," Yoda reminded him. "Even once mastered the Force, you have, difficult for you, the road ahead will be."

"I understand." Luke nodded slowly. "But it's the life I want – like my father before me."

Yoda pursed his lips together tightly together over what Luke's last remark. He was refraining himself from passing a comment about what the boy said about wanting to be like his father. Quick to change the subject, he suddenly spoke in a tone as upbeat as his gruff voice could sound.

"Now one thousand laps around the swamp, I want you to run!"

"What?!" Luke's jaw dropped, unable to believe what the old Jedi Master wanted him to do straight after his last torturous exercise had finished. "You gotta be kidding!"

"Make jokes, I do not!" Yoda held back the urge to smile, knowing how untrue what he said was. "Hop to it!"

"I can't possibly run one lap around this swamp!" Luke scrambled to his feet, glaring down at his small trainer with an outraged look. "Let alone a thousand!"

"Oh! Good excuse, do you have?"

"I'm tired! I'm achy! I just spent the last three hours lifting you with a pile of stones up and down on my back!" Luke sat down on one of the rocks he'd been carrying, a weary sigh escaping him as he held his head in his hands. "I don't have any energy left in me to run."

Yoda exhaled softly, closing his eyes with a small shake of his wrinkled, green head. He raised a crooked finger, curling it towards himself.

"Young Skywalker," he said quietly, "come here..."

Unsuspectingly, Luke lowered his hands before leaning towards his wise trainer. "Yes, Master?"

Right at that moment, Yoda suddenly struck the boy on his forehead with a hard whack from his walking stick.

"OW!" Luke leaped up, clutching the spot on his head where the stick had hit him, where a purple bruise was forming. "What ya do that for?"

"Energy, you may not have left in you!" Yoda said crankily. "But the Force, you do!"

"The Force? " Luke repeated.

Without warning, Yoda clouted the boy severely with his walking stick again, this time on the back of his head.

"OUCH!"

"Have you not learnt anything I have taught you, boy?"

"Yes, yes!"

"Then a Jedi's purpose for mastering the Force is for what?"

"Uhh…" Luke stammered, unable to think straight out of fear over how abusive his master was being. "Lifting stones?!"

An irate frown crossed Yoda's green face, making him appear more wrinkly than ever – as he delivered a blow with his stick across Luke's back.

"Youch!" The Jedi-in-training rubbed the spots where he'd been hit, unable to bare the pain he was being deliver from the petite alien. "Would ya cut it out already?"

"Going to sit there and complain, are you?!"

"No, no! Not at all!" Luke quickly leapt to his feet, eager to distance himself from the crazy creature attacking him. "I'm gonna master the Force!"

"Then ten thousands laps, you start running!" Yoda ordered.

"_Ten_ thousand?" Luke exclaimed, bewildered. "Master Yoda, just a minute ago, you told me to run _one_ thousand…"

Yoda responded by swiping his stick around, walloping Luke around his ankles.

"ARGH!"

"_Ten_ thousand laps!" Yoda demanded wildly. "Not a single one less!"

"Okay, okay! Ten thousand laps! I'm startin' right now! Just don't hit me with that stick again!"

Battered and absolutely terrified of his aggressive master, Luke sprinted away as fast as the Force could carry him. He disappeared quickly into the swirling mist, about to do the run of his life across the whole filthy swamp.

Finally calming down, Yoda placed his walking stick down in front of it, resting himself upon it. His gazed thoughtfully into the distance where Luke had run off to, his elderly green eyes twinkling.

"Such a whiner, that boy is!" The eccentric old Jedi Master chuckled to himself. "Much like his father, he is!"

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**The end.**


End file.
